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The ailing
animal lover, who spends most of his time secluded at home, made a heartbreaking pilgrimage to the burial plot of his beloved wife,
Dorothy Jo Gideon — and collapsed in grief! “Bob never got over Dorothy Jo’s death from lung cancer,” says a source. “They were married 36 years and she was the love of his life.
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“He never remarried. He and Dorothy Jo were together since age 15 and he told me, ‘I just felt there should only ever be one Mrs. Bob Barker.’ ”
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Looking weary and wearing a casual, oversized T-shirt and baggy pants, the usually dapper star was driven by his caretaker to L.A.’s Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills cemetery. Carrying a single white rose, he arrived at the grave site and he fell to his knees!
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“He cleared off the gravestones and placed a single white flower on his wife’s marker,” says an eyewitness. “Bob appeared incredibly sad and close to tears.” He sat on a small box they had brought as he talked quietly to Dorothy Jo, who passed in 1981, fiddling with the wedding band he still wears — nearly four decades after her death!"
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Tragically, Bob expects to join Dorothy Jo soon — he’s had a tombstone engraved with his name and date of birth and has planned his own funeral.
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Beloved by fans, the star was marred by scandal in 1994 when curvy, blond "The Price Is Right" model Dian Parkinson sued him for sexual harassment, claiming he’d forced her into a three-year affair.
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She dropped the action, but in 1995, model Holly Hallstrom (left) sued him for wrongful firing and launching a media attack against her. The suit was settled in 2005. Two other women workers also sued him for sexual harassment and discrimination and later got out-of-court payoffs.
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A longtime animal-rights advocate, Bob sparked new fears for his health when
he fell at his Hollywood home in mid-June, and was rushed to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Earlier in 2015, he suffered a nasty two-inch gash to his head and a knee laceration when he tripped on uneven pavement and crashed to the ground.
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He’s also survived two strokes, heart disease, recurring skin cancer and prostate surgery. “The next fall could be deadly — and Bob knows it,” says the friend. “But he’s not afraid. He said, ‘When it’s my time, I’m ready to die.’
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“I think he can’t wait for the day when he and Dorothy can be reunited."
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